Full Table of Contents: Surfing the Interstates: Complete Chapter Guide
Chapter Two: Turn On Your Lovelight
Night coming on fast. Spot in the woods just off the highway. Good tree cover. Close enough to hear the trucks. Make camp by flashlight. Rainbow. Hitting on me? Pull out my Record and write: "Very much in love?" and underline it. What do I know about love?
Unable to sleep. Highway noise persistent. In my pack, next to the Colombian, my cassette player and the tape I'd made before leaving—Dead, Allmans from '70 and '71, before everything changed. Duane's death at 24, October 29, 1971, motorcycle accident. Then Berry Oakley, also 24, three blocks from where Duane died, also on a motorcycle. Losses looming large. Tonight I need music—something familiar in all this strangeness.
Load the tape, light joint, deep hit. Dark Star floats into Pennsylvania darkness. Jerry's liquid silver tone snaking in and out of the forest around me. That name—the Grateful…
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